Rwanda national basketball team coach Moise Mutokambali has named seven professional players in the provisional team for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers First Round to be staged in Bamako, Mali from February 23-25.

The Malian capital will host Group B that consists of Mali, Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda.

The seven pros join the 17 home-based players that Mutokambali selected last month and have been training twice a week since mid-January at Amahoro Indoor Stadium.

According to Mutokambali, the professional players will join their local-based teammates in camp on February 8. He also disclosed that the final list of players to join residential camp will be announced on Sunday (today) before the team enters camp on Tuesday.

“We will start residential training camp after the Heroes’ Day tournament,” Mutokambali said, adding that, “Hamza (Ruhezamihigo) and Kenneth (Gasana) have confirmed they will be in the country by the time we start camp but other we’re still waiting for the others to confirm. “

The top three teams from each group advance to the second round, where the 12 qualified teams are divided in two groups (E and F) of 6 teams each.

The first legs of the second-round tournament take place during the fourth window (Sept. 10-18), with the return legs to follow during the fifth window (Nov. 26-Dec. 4) and the sixth window (Feb. 20-28, 2019).

The top two teams from Groups E and F and the best third-ranked team will secure their tickets for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019. The first-ever 32-team edition of FIBA’s flagship competition will take place from August 31-September 15, 2019, in China.